Press Release: 7/9/2025

Testimony submitted to the Joint Committee on Election Laws in support of H.876/S.517 An Act strengthening the post-election audit process

The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and our 44 local Leagues support improvements to the

Massachusetts post-election audit process (NCSL, 2025); improvements strengthen the election process

and increase voter confidence in the accuracy of election outcomes. This bipartisan bill would provide

important upgrades to existing Massachusetts post-election audits, including more comprehensive and

more frequent post-election audit provisions.

This bill is impactful because:

It would increase audit frequency and ensure that more races are audited, thus increasing the

chance of swiftly identifying any issues with equipment, methods, or fraud. In Massachusetts, audits

are currently only conducted every four years, after presidential elections. This bill would require a

hand-counted audit of randomly selected races after every state election and state primary and would even

include certain ballot questions. Audits check for issues with equipment and methods and serve as a

strong deterrent to fraud. (NCSL, 2025) This bill would also authorize cities and towns to perform

post-election audits of local elections, if they wish. Under current laws, municipal elections cannot be

audited.

It would require that “all ballots validly cast” are included in the audit, validating the integrity of

the election process for all voters. Currently, the law only requires that ballots cast on Election Day are

included in the audit. This bill would require that “all ballots validly cast” are included in the audit,

including any “cured” provisional ballots.

It would create a risk-limiting audit workgroup to study, report on, and pilot the use of risk-limiting

audits in Massachusetts. Risk-limiting audits “limit the risk that a contest is certified with the

wrong winner” (NCSL, 2024) and can make audits less time-consuming and expensive to conduct.

(NCSL, 2024) This bill would create a “risk-limiting audit workgroup to investigate future

implementation of audits which incorporate methods that afford a high degree of statistical confidence

that the reported outcomes in the audited contests are correct.”

The adoption of risk-limiting audits would bring Massachusetts into line with a growing number of states

– both red and blue – who employ this technique, including Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, Rhode

Island, and Virginia. (NCSL, 2024)

The workgroup will study risk-limiting audits, and can conduct, as needed, pilot audits of past elections to

support and inform their work. These audits would also provide an opportunity for election officials and

legislators to become familiar with risk-limiting audits. The workgroup will issue a report with their



recommendations by July 31, 2027. These are important steps toward the adoption of risk-limiting audits

for Massachusetts.

A special League task force studied and issued a detailed report on post-election audits in January 2009.

The 30-page report recommends “risk-limiting audits with escalation protocols... Audits should be

designed and implemented so that there is great confidence that any significant error will be

detected...Fixed percentage audits include insufficient audit units...in small or close races and

unnecessarily many units for landslide or large races.” The report recommended audits for “selected races

and ballot questions in all elections - primary, general and special.” (LWVUS January 2009)

Statement of Position on Voter Representation/Electoral Systems as adopted by concurrence by the 54th

Convention in June 2020: LWVUS promotes an open governmental system that is representative,

accountable, and responsive. We encourage electoral methods that provide the broadest voter

representation possible and are expressive of voter choices. Whether for single or multiple-winner

contests, the League supports electoral methods that: • Encourage voter participation and voter

engagement. • Encourage those with minority opinions to participate, including under-represented

communities. • Are verifiable and auditable. • Promote access to voting. • Maximize effective

votes/minimize wasted votes. • Promote sincere voting over strategic voting. • Implement alternatives to

plurality voting. • Are compatible with acceptable ballot-casting methods, including vote-by-mail.

(LWVUS, 2024, p. 57)

This bipartisan bill would strengthen the election process and increase public confidence in election

outcomes by making post-election audits more frequent and more comprehensive. The League of Women

Voters of Massachusetts and our 44 local Leagues encourage you to report this bill favorably.



References



National Conference of State Legislatures. (June 19, 2025). Post-election audits.

https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/post-election-audits

National Conference of State Legislatures. (September 6, 2024). Risk-limiting audits.

https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/risk-limiting-audits

League of Women Voters of the United States. (January 2009). Report on election auditing.

https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2018-07/report-electionaudits.pdf

League of Women Voters of the United States. (2024). Impact on Issues.

https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/ImpactOnIssues_2024-FINAL-DIGITAL.pdf